A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Fruit Forum help identifying problem my with strawberries

Hello there-
and thanks to anyone taking the time to read my post.

I recently started a new raised bed vegetable garden in my backyard. I live in San Francisco so we have a cool temperature almost year round. currently temps are around 65 during the day and 50's at night.

I just moved into my new house specifically for the yard and wanting to grow some vegetables so I tried to take special care preparing the beds.

My soil was quite alkaline so I added 2 bags of peat moss and 2 bags of redwood compost. I also added in 3 bags of planting soil because i didn't have enough dirt to fill my raised beds.

I did all this 2 weekends ago now. I bought a variety of plants and tried to plant them all according to their specifications.
The spot the bed is in, gets around 5 hours direct sunlight ( it is th sunniest spot I have) it is right in the middle of my yard, and the reason I only get 5 hours is because there are 2-3 story buildings on either side of me.

It has been two weeks since I planted the veggies and nothing is really growing, but my main concern is my strawberries because they are actually wilting pretty badly.

After I planted them I watered real well and have been watering in the mornings around 7am. A couple of mornings I have not watered because the soil is still damp from the last watering.

They have been wilting more and more each day, and I cannot determine why.
Too much water? Not enough water? bugs?
I thought at first , maybe it was too much water, so I didnt water yesterday morning and when I got home last night, they were all lying completely on the ground. After I watered last night, they perked up some, but still the leaves look wilted or almost burnt?
Can wind cause wilt, because i get a lot of wind for around 30 minutes in the afternoon.
Another idea I had was perhaps my soil is too rich in fertilizer?



thanks for any help!!

You will always get some transplant shock, and it will take a little while for the soil to kind of get to a point where it is right...don't expect immediate recovery, but they have a good chance at this point. You might put down more mulch to mediate the heat from that black fabric, even just some newspaper or anything lighter that doesn't absorb heat.

Yup, it's just transplant shock. Strawberries are tough plants though.

Try not to overwater either. You can go a couple of days between waterings and don't give them any more fertilizer. in a bit you'll see new leaves forming.

thanks so much for the advise. I'll let you know how they are in a couple of weeks

Did the strawberry plants wilted when the weather in San Francisco was warmer than usual? If so, it could be caused by ground mealybugs. They are tiny white, egg-shaped insects with short antennae and segmented body. White cottony masses is an indication of their presence.

Which general location of SF is your garden in? Used to live near Sts. Peter & Paul Church.